We’ve got a longish weekend in the Northwoods this week. Headed up on Thursday afternoon with plenty of time to get some fishing in. Two hours and one Rock Bass later we headed in. On the way back our youngest son (13) insists on borrowing my phone to take a picture. I informed him it was too dark to take a good picture but eventually relented. 5 minutes later he hands my phone back with these pictures on it. He did the editing, including the borders, on my phone. My phone does borders, who knew?

But we are undeterred. The thunderstorms rolling through Northern Wisconsin did a number on us this past Memorial Day weekend. Sunday morning about 3:15am we were jolted out of bed by an incredibly loud bang. We looked out the window and saw that one of our trees, only 30-40 feet from our bedroom, had been hit by lightning. Our big Hemlock is going to be firewood soon. Thankfully we have a number of large trees in the front yard but we still hate a lose a nice old tree. Why the huge pine towering another 50 feet in the air adjacent the Hemlock didn’t get hit is a mystery to us.

As you may have noticed, the Wheeler Lake webcams and weather information have not been updating since Sunday morning. Along with our tree, the lightening strike has also taken out a TV, DVR, DSL modem, wireless router, electronic thermostat, multiple webcams, the weather monitoring system and likely more. Much of this equipment was protected by multiple UPS devices. Incredibly the power never went out and the phones still work. It would seem an EMP sent by the lightning strike is to blame. We are now divining the secrets of effectively dealing with our insurance company over the loss.
Have you ever had to deal with your insurance company over a lightning stike?

I Love Winter!! I have many friends that live below the Rust Belt who think I am a bit of a nut because I like winter so much. They just don’t get it. Winter, to me, is kind of like having visitors in your home. You are really glad to see them arrive and, often, […]

Today I called my 82 year old mother, who lives in Arizona, on her cell phone. She couldn’t talk to me because she was in the middle of a round of golf. Later in the day I dutifully called her back to see how her game was. She told me she shot a 92. […]

After the Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV it took us about 3 seconds to decide we were going to the celebration at Lambeau Field. Actually, we knew we were going the second the Packers won because our (football obsessed) oldest son started pressing us to go when the playoffs started. He was absolutely certain […]

Everybody that likes football already knows the Packers are the NFL Super Bowl XLV champions. What a great day to be from Green Bay. It was a nail biter for me since I much prefer big point spreads. We had most of the extended family on my wifes side over for the game. We brought in […]

We were finally able to get all parties together for a weekend of snowmobiling and ice skating on Wheeler Lake in northern Oconto county. You see, we had planned for a nice long weekend over the New Years holiday with a brother and sister in-law on my wifes side but, it was warm and rained […]